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Notes from the back row

Local filmmakers' 72-hour masterpieces

Movie fans rejoice. Even though I’ve heard nothing but negative about the ski and snowboard fest, at least the local filmmakers are still holding it down.

Robjn Taylor, a.k.a. “the only dude in town that spells ‘Robin’ with a ‘j’,” cleaned up at the filmmaker showdown. Despite an incredibly progressive competition Robjn proved that with local wisdom, incredible genius, and a couple El Pacas, you can ride your mousetrap dreams all the way to the top. Robjn’s the only two-time winner in the history of the contest, so if ya don’t know…now ya know.

Also impressing the judges, and me was Liz Thompson’s Smash, Blast, Fast. It took it back to all those Canadian Film Board animations of our youth, only about fifteen times cooler.

Jamie Kramer, who used to have the best show on TV, conquered Europe with his art/horror hybrid. Sylvia Plath would be stoked.

Comedy rules at the Filmmaker showdown but the TSN Turning Point of the night was a flick called Sandman , a dark, Tim Burton-y, masterpiece that proved there’s plenty of time to edit and animate footage in just 72 hours. These dudes call themselves the Amazing Factory, and they are pretty frickin’ amazing, in a German Expressionist kind of way.

If you aren’t into the local independent scene, fear not, the Village 8 has you covered. The King of contemporary comedy Judd Apatow’s new flick, Forgetting Sarah Marshall integrates real-life drama with shit-talking buddy humour, yet somehow gets sentimental enough that your girlfriend will let all the best parts slide.

Not my girlfriend though, she’s still hassling me to make sure all you loyal readers watch Hot Rod as soon as possible, and I have to concur. But that’s neither here nor there. Forgetting Sarah Marshall about a dude that gets dumped then sits around being painfully useless and listening to sappy songs. Then he goes to Hawaii to get away from it all and runs into his ex-woman who’s publicly tapping an indulgent Euro. Man, that would suck.

But Sarah Marshall comes from the same crew that brought us the lewd loser buddies in Superbad and the “You know how I know you’re gay?” conversations in The 40 Year-Old Virgin. Apatow delivers characters that often remind us of people we know or are, or hate, and that’s why he’s killing it right now.

On DVD, you ought to be checking out Death at a Funeral which has uniquely funny drug sequences that include gay midget sex and coffin sharing. Forget I am Legend . Good short story, shitty movie. You know it’s garbage when the most interesting part is watching a dog die.

And, because it’s spring and everyone’s been serving fools for the last four months, why not chuck on the best all-time napping DVD — Blue Crush. That’s true comfort. Even with all the negative vibes and uninspired whining that go hand in hand with watching your entire community sell out and call it a festival, Kate Bosworth in a bikini, pretending to surf, can still salvage your shittiest, rainy, garbage-ass day. Movie fans rejoice.